A local company is helping Team USA carry their equipment in style during these winter games.

Fieldtex makes duffle bags for medical and military equipment. They wanted to make bags for Olympians and sent e-mails to U.S. outfitter Ralph Lauren that went unanswered. It turns out Ralph Lauren found them.

“One of their designers was searching online, found our website, gave us a call around 5 [p.m.] one day. Someone happened to be in the office still after everyone had left; picked up the call and said ‘yeah, that’s something we can do,” Jo Nathan Abbey said.

“They made it apparent right from the beginning how important it was that all companies that manufacture products from the U.S. It’s an honor to work with a company like Ralph Lauren,” Carol Maynard said.

Over 500 duffles were made for each Olympian and Paralympian. Extras went to the Olympic Village store and are already sold out.

“To see our products get in something as big as this, it’s more personal than an industrial product. It’s huge for every employee. Morale is definitely up because of that,” Maynard said.

“Sure, Fieldtex is hoping their Olympic exposure leads to more business, but that wasn’t the point. They just wanted to be involved. And what’s more American than a homegrown company with a melting pot of employees from 23 different nations supporting Team USA at the Olympics,” Abbey said.

“It really pulled people together. We have something like 170 employees and we had people in the office snipping threads towards the end making sure every little piece got together,” production manager Cynthia Helander said.

The bags were actually produced last summer, and speaking of summer-

“We are going to be waiting for that next call from Ralph Lauren and for the next Olympics,” she said.

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